What is the Stamporama Invoicing Program?
The Stamporama Invoicing program has been written to assist the Stamporama Auction Sellers in the invoicing process. The process of compiling the list of auction lots that have been won by individual buyers can become quite difficult when large numbers of lots are involved. This program has been written to help simply the whole settlement process. The Stamporama Invoicing program works using the Auction History information that is copied from the closed auction lots, every night at 12:15am EST. So when you are working with the invoicing program you are always looking at a picture of the closed auction lots as of the night before.
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Step by Step from the Start
The first thing that you will be asked to do is to logon to the system using your username and password from the Stamporama Auction. If it is your first time into the Invoicing program you will be taken to the Invoice Control Maintenance screen to set up your Invoice Control record. Each seller who uses the Invoicing program has to have one of these control records. It hold the basic information used in creating the invoice that will be emailed to the buyer. In the Invoice Control Maintenance screen you will be asked to setup the following information:

The Invoice Number Control - which in the last invoice number used for your sequence of invoices. Each time you create a new invoice this number is used to calculate the next invoice number. Each seller has their own sequence of invoice numbers. You can change this number if you would like your invoice number sequence to start at a number other than one(1), which is the default.

The Send Invoice Email to Seller flag - if this checkbox is ticked, the seller will be sent a copy of the email that is sent to the buyer. The default will be to send the copy of the email to the seller, but you can un-tick this checkbox if you do not wish to get the copy email.

The Seller's Default Name and Address Information - this is printed at the top of the invoice to indicate to the buyer who has sent the invoice. By default this information is taken from your Auction Registration information. You can enhance this to add anything that you would like at the top of your invoice. You may want to put the name of your stamp business or you may want to insert a graphic that you have stored on a picture host website like photobucket. You can test out the changes that you have made by going to one of the invoices that you have created and printing the invoice using the print button at the bottom of the invoice display screen.

Payment and Shipping Terms - this is the standard payment and shipping terms, and anything else that you want to appear on each of the invoices that you send out. You will have the opportunity on each invoice to add a special customized note to the individual buyer.

On pressing the "Save" button on the Invoice Control Maintenance screen you will be given the option to go the the Invoice List or to return to the Auction home page. Click on the link to take you to the Invoice List.

The Invoice List screen displays the list of invoices that you have created. To add a new invoice press the "Add an Invoice" button at the bottom of the list. To view or change an invoice, click on the underlined invoice creation date/time in the left hand column. Both these options will be described further below.
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Creating a New Invoice
On pressing the "Add and Invoice" button on the Invoice List screen you will be taken step by step through the process of creating the new invoice.

Step 1: Select the buyer for whom you want to create the invoice Select the person that you want to create the invoice for by clicking on their name in the left hand column.

Step 2: Select the lots to be added to the new invoice The lots that this person has purchase from your are displayed in descending close date order, so the newest ones are at the top of the screen. Tick the checkbox in the left hand column to select the lot. You can select as many as you want to or select all of them by pressing the Select All button at the bottom of the screen. Press the Next button when you have selected all the lots that you want to include on this invoice.

Step 3: Is where you enter the Postage and Other Charges On this screen you can enter the Postage, Other Charges and a Comment that you want to have included on the invoice. You can use HTML in the Comments field to format your message.

Step 4: Is the Final Confirmation On this screen you can see all the information that will go on the invoice. At the bottom of this screen you can print the invoice, so you can see exactly how it will look, or you can press the Email button to send the invoice to the buyer.
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Viewing or Changing and Invoice
On the Invoice List screen you can view or change one of the invoices that you have created by clicking on the Date Created link in the left hand column. This will show you the Invoice Display screen, with all the information about the invoice. If the invoice is still in "Open" status, in other words you haven't already sent the invoice to the buyer, you can select to change the Postage, Other Charges or Comments by clicking on the button at the bottom of the screen. You can also print the invoice or you can email the invoice to the buyer by clicking on the appropriate buttons at the bottom of the screen. If the invoice is still in "Open" status you may also "Close" the invoice or "Delete" it. If you press "Delete" you will be asked to confirm that you really do want to delete the invoice before the program will go ahead to delete it for you.

If the invoice is in "Sent" or "Closed" status, you can't change the details of the invoice, but you can re-open it by pressing the button at the bottom of the screen, which will then change the status of the invoice to "Reopened" which means that you will be able to change the details, add a new lot, and then send the invoice again.
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What can I do about the old auction lots that have already been settled with the buyers?
Some of our members have been selling auction lots to other members on the Auction for a long while. If you are one of these people you will have a lot Auction Lots that you have already settled with the buyers and for which you will never want to use the invoicing program. You can mark these old lots as "Closed" so that they don't show up in the list of auction lots that are available to be invoiced. To do this go to the Invoice List and from the Invoice Menu on the left side of the screen, select "Update Invoice Auction Lot Status". This will give you your list of Auction Lots Sold that have not as yet been included on an invoice.

To mark these auction lots as closed, select them by clicking on the checkbox in the left hand column. If you want to select them all and then un-check lots that you don't want to mark as closed, press the "Select All" button that is found either at the top or at the bottom of the list. When you are happy with what you have selected, press the "Save" button and all the Auction History records that you have selected will be updated. If you find that you have made an error, you can come back to this screen and un-select the lots that you want to be able to include on an invoice and press the "Save" button.
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